John Clifford Mortimer, the only child of Clifford and Kathleen May
Smith Mortimer, was born in Hampstead, London, on April 21, 1923. He was
educated at Harrow School (1937-40) and Brasenose College, Oxford (1940-42, BA
1947), and, like his father, he became a barrister in 1948 after serving as a
scriptwriter and assistant director for the Crown Film Units during World War
II. Mortimer's first novel,
Charade, was also published in 1948, and
within ten years he had published six more novels. His third radio play,
The Dock Brief, which was produced by the
BBC Third Programme in 1957, won the Italia Prize and was produced on the stage
in 1958, along with the first play he wrote for the stage,
What Shall We Tell Caroline? Among his
subsequent stage plays are
The Wrong Side of the Park (1960),
The Judge (1967),
A Voyage Round My Father (1970), and
Collaborators (1973). He also wrote
translations of Georges Feydeau's
A Flea in Her Ear (1966) and
Cat among the Pigeons (1969). Besides
writing for radio and television, Mortimer also wrote screenplays for
The Running Man (1963),
John and Mary (1969), and other films.

Unlike his playwright contemporaries, the “angry young men” of the
1950s, Mortimer came from an upper-class background, wrote about the middle
classes in decline, and followed established theatrical traditions. He is
better known for his one-act plays than his full-length ones, and he is perhaps
best known for his
"Rumpole of the Bailey" novels and television
series, and for his television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's
Brideshead Revisited.

Mortimer continued to work as a lawyer and became a Queen's Counsel
(1966) and Master of the Bench, Inner Temple (1975). In a celebrated case in
1970 he successfully defended the publishers of
Oz against pornography charges.

Mortimer married twice, first to author Penelope Fletcher Dimont (1949,
divorced 1971), and second to Penelope Gollop (1972-), and he had two children
with each.

More information about John Mortimer and his work may be found in the
following sources:
Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series,
volume 21 (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1981-);
Dictionary of Literary Biography, volume 13
(Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1982); and the
International Dictionary of Theatre, volume
2 (Chicago: St. James Press, 1992-96).

The John Mortimer papers include typescript and holograph drafts of his
plays, teleplays, and radio plays, as well as correspondence about the papers
and Mortimer's list of his manuscripts, all dating from 1957-1967. Among
noteworthy items are a holograph and a typescript draft of his Feydeau
translation
Cat among the Pigeons, a revised carbon
typescript of
Collect Your Hand Baggage, and a duplicated
radio script of his most famous one-act play,
The Dock Brief. Early drafts of
The Judge show his rearrangement of the
order of scenes, while a duplicated typescript for the 1967 Cambridge Theatre
production of the play contains extensive holograph revisions made during
rehearsals. Holograph drafts of
The Other Side and
The Rare Device show much rewriting. Two
early versions of
The Wrong Side of the Park are also present,
including a heavily revised holograph draft of the first act.

Letters from Jacob Schwartz to Bertram Rota re Mortimer's
papers,
January 1965. With clipping and pricelist

2

Mortimer's holograph list of his manuscripts,
nd

3

Call Me a Liar (teleplay),
typescript with holograph revisions,
1958

4-5

Cat among the Pigeons (translation
of Georges Feydeau's
Un fil àla patte: Comedie),
one holograph and one typescript draft (Note: some
holograph pages are written on the versos of pages from the typescript
draft)

6

Collect Your Hand Baggage,
typescript with holograph revisions,
1960

7

David and Broccoli (teleplay),
typescript with holograph revisions,
1960

8

The Dock Brief, typescript with some
holograph revisions,
1957

The Judge [Trial
versions]

9

Composite holograph and typescript draft, with revision
pages,
nd. With holograph notes re order of scenes

10

Typescript and holograph draft pages, with holograph
revisions,
nd. With holograph outline of order of scenes in Act
One